


Decoration Day

by larchwood



Category: Cut & Run - Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux
Genre: Gen, Mara's POV, Memorial Day, Ty & Zane are mentioned only
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-30
Updated: 2017-05-30
Packaged: 2018-11-06 15:36:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11039130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/larchwood/pseuds/larchwood
Summary: A glimpse of the Grady family on Memorial Day.





	Decoration Day

**Author's Note:**

> Not a new work - originally posted on tumblr.

Mara hummed quietly to herself as she pulled the weeds from around the gravestone. _Daddy’s marker needs some cleaning_ , she thought to herself. The in-ground headstone had mud caked into the engraving. Good thing she had brought some tools with her, she thought as she brushed the worst of it away with her gloved hands.

She couldn’t have asked for better weather. One never knew at the end of May if there’d be buckets of rain or a scorcher of sunshine. She took off her straw hat and pushed her bangs out of her eyes as she fanned the hat in her face. She settled more comfortably on the ground between her parents’ graves, taking in the buzzing of conversation around her - other cousins and neighbors catching up after a long spell of being apart - but trying to remember how her momma smelt of talcum powder and sunshine, and the cadence of her daddy saying “Aaaa-men” at the dinner table after blessing the food.

“Daddy - you wouldn’t believe how big Amelia has gotten! That precious girl has your eyes. And Lordy! She goes a mile a minute!” she laughed softly to herself, thinking of the baby running through the house trying to get Chester’s dog Maggie to chase her. “I didn’t think I could love more than I did with Ty and Deuce, but you were right - grandbabies are just a whole ‘nother level of precious.”

She fussed with the bouquet of flowers she had already placed next to her momma’s headstone. “The boys are doing alright, Momma. The two of them are still rebuilding Zane’s bookstore. I’m thinking the 4th of July would be a good time to go out to visit. The fireworks over the harbor really are something to see.” She stopped, lost in her memories of the last time the boys were over for a visit. “Zane makes him so happy, Momma,” she murmured as she shook her head. “You’d hardly recognize the light in him now. He looks at that boy like he’s the center of his whole world. I was afraid I’d never see that.”

She glanced around her, looking to see how the rest of the clean up was coming along. Earl and some of the other menfolk were busy chopping down dead tree limbs and hacking back the overgrown bushes that were encroaching on the grounds after the harsh winter. A small group of cub scouts was listening with rapt attention to the cubmaster as she explained how to place the small flags next to the right headstones. The preacher’s wife was chatting with the older women who were laying out the picnic spread as she rocked the newest Davidson baby, his momma gratefully sitting down next to her to rest. Mara supposed there couldn’t be a better image of the old adage - [for everything there is a season](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes+3%3A1-8&version=ESV).

Chester sat in the lawn chair they had brought, positioned between Evie’s grave and his brother’s memorial stone, shovel resting on his lap, his hands idly stroking the handle. Mara imagined he was having the same conversation with them that she was having with her own dead. Evie had been the best mother-in-law she could have asked for. She only hoped that she could be the same for Zane. Chester’s twin brother [Warren](http://www.abigailroux.com/books/gradyfamilytree.jpg) never came back from the Pacific. His name was on a granite monument in the town square - along with the dead from other wars, but this stone was _his_ spot. Chester had already decreed that he’d be laid between the two when it was finally his time to go home.

Decoration Day seemed to be a remnant of an older time. Mara remembered coming to the cemetery when she was just a schoolgirl. In those days it was practically a family reunion. The community came together to clean the grounds, visit with kin who had come in from out of town, and reminiscence about the loved ones buried there. The children would run around, playing tag or other made up games. Teenagers were either tasked with keeping on eye on the little ones, or hauling trash out - but some of them still managed to wander off with their sweethearts for a few private moments away from their parents. Mara and Earl done the same at that age.

The citizens of Bluefield were just as patriotic now as they ever were. A community-wide memorial service was scheduled for Monday morning at the town square. It would be a solemn observance, punctuated by the planting of a memorial sapling for the young soldier from Bluefield who had given his life in Afghanistan during the last year.

But people just didn’t come out to cemeteries for Decoration Day like they did back then. Mara supposed that families were just too busy these days, too spread out to come back. Maybe it was too [old-fashioned of a custom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day) that was only really kept up in the mountains communities.

A voice broke in on her memories, as a shadow blocked the sunlight warming her back. “You need a hand up, Mom?” Mara craned her neck to squint at Deacon as he smiled down at her. “Deacon! I wasn’t expecting y’all for another hour at least! Think you haul an old woman up? Where’re my favorite girls?”

Deuce rolled his eyes and scoffed, as he reached down and held out his hands. “Yes, Momma. As long as you don’t intend to yank me down there with you, I’m pretty sure I can get you up.” Deuce smoothly pulled her up and into a warm hug. “Took less time than expected to get Princess Amelia and her required frippery into the car. The hardest part was getting her to say bye-bye to Ty & Zane. ‘Course that’s true every time we visit them. We had to promise her that you’d let her help bake this weekend.”

Mara snorted as she laughed. “A grown man - a psychiatrist - having to resort to bribery for a three year old,” she teased. Deuce nodded emphatically. “Yep! And I ain’t ashamed to admit it, either. I’m saving myself for the battles that matter - like when she wants to date.” He shuddered dramatically.

They turned to see Livi standing next Chester while Amelia sat on his lap, chattering away about whatever sights she had seen as they drove up the mountain. Earl joined them as they walked over and patted Deuce on the shoulder. “Just in time to weedwhack around the fence line, boy!” Deuce squinted over towards the fence, where the undergrowth had already been taken care of, before turning to give his dad an unimpressed glare. “Nice try, old man. I timed this just right. Looks like the hard work’s already done. And I can hear Preacher Collins calling everybody over for food now.” “Yeah,” Earl replied, “Doesn’t mean I don’t have a whole list of other things back at the house with your name on it this weekend.” Deuce’s shoulders slumped a little at that. Mara placed a hand on each of their arms and tugged them towards the picnic tables. “Come on, you two. Food first. There’ll be plenty of time to work Deuce to the bone later, Earl. I’m needing my grandbaby hugs.”

Mara swooped up Amelia and peppered her face with kisses while the little girl squealed and giggled before turning to give Livi a welcome hug. “I’m so glad y’all made it. Ready to meet even more of the family?” she asked, smiling down at the younger woman. “Whatever they tell you about me is lies, Livi!” Deuce called from behind them as he and Earl helped Chester out of the lawn chair. “Hush, you,” Mara shouted over her shoulder back at him. “Nothing your cousins can tell her that she didn’t already hear from me.” Livi giggled, wrapping her arm around her mother-in-law’s waist as they walked toward tables. “Looking forward to it, Mara.”


End file.
